GREEN BAY \u2014 If Bob Harlan was looking down through the clouds and into the Lambeau Field atrium on Monday afternoon, he surely would have been smiling.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not, of course, over all the nice things people were saying about him and his transformational tenure as the Green Bay Packers team president and CEO. Although there was a lot of that.<\/p>\n
But what Harlan would have surely loved was seeing so many people who worked so hard for, and were so dedicated to, the organization \u2014 in no small part because of the way he made them feel valued and important to the team\u2019s success both on and off the field \u2014 gathering with the Harlan family to share their favorite memories and retell their favorite stories<\/p>\n
From Pro Football Hall of Fame general manager to Ron Wolf, Super Bowl XLV-winning head coach Mike McCarthy and Harlan\u2019s successors as team president, Mark Murphy and Ed Policy, to Judy Mehlberg from the mail room and Lisa Treichel from the Packers Pro Shop and Jeanne Bruette, who spent 21 years as Wolf\u2019s and fellow GM Ted Thompson\u2019s administrative assistant \u2014 they all came together to celebrate Harlan, who passed away on March 5 at age 89.<\/p>\n
While his 1991 hiring of Wolf to lead the long-suffering franchise\u2019s modern renaissance led to the 1996 team\u2019s Super Bowl XXXI title to end a 29-year championship drought, and his 2005 hiring of Ted Thompson led to the Packers\u2019 next Super Bowl championship team in 2010, Harlan\u2019s most enduring accomplishment was the franchise\u2019s Lambeau Field redevelopment project, made possible by his unrelenting efforts to get the 2000 stadium referendum passed to generate the $160 million in public funds \u2014 via a 0.5% sales tax in Brown County \u2014 needed for the $295 million renovation.<\/p>\n
That project led to the atrium in which Harlan was honored and remembered Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we have a lot of Packers employees here, both past and present. On behalf of all of us, I just want to thank Bob for putting a roof over our head,\u201d Policy told those in attendance, which included fans, staffers and a handful of reporters who\u2019d covered much or all of Harlan\u2019s tenure as president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis roof and the atrium that’s below it would not exist without his vision and his tenacity. On the elevator ride coming down, we were just telling stories about how hard it was to accomplish this. Thank you from all of us to Bob for that.”<\/p>\n
Wolf, McCarthy, Murphy and Policy all took part in a Q&A session moderated by Harlan\u2019s son, Kevin, the renowned play-by-play man who calls NFL games for CBS Sports and Westwood One radio and was calling NCAA March Madness action in San Diego before taking a red-eye flight to Titletown for the event.<\/p>\n